


on the other side

by CiaranthePage



Series: The Lodge in the Woods [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Gen, Magic Burns, Mama's POV, POV Second Person, it'll make sense later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-26 15:08:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20744222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CiaranthePage/pseuds/CiaranthePage
Summary: You get the tip about a mage in the mirror world later than you would’ve liked.You planned the trip to the mirror world a few weeks ago, hoping to pick up some materials for a sculpture, and only at the portal does someone mention the mage. Signs of one, at least -- large periodic magic fluctuations where there shouldn’t be any, hopping from place to place followed by rumors of a larger-than-life magic show by someone new to the scene. The cloud elf doesn’t even mean to tip you off, as far as you can tell; she mentions it casually while looking at her nails and waiting for someone to come back through the portal, with a “thought you should know,” thrown on as anafterthought.(alt: Mama runs some errands and ends up with a new guest; Aubrey has some magic trouble and finds a new home.)





	on the other side

**Author's Note:**

> hello, and welcome to my au!  
while sorted in a different series, this is actually a companion to _[And So The Silver Sands Call](https://archiveofourown.org/series/920538)_, since it's set in the same universe; it's mostly sorted into a different category bcus i don't know if or when the balance and amnesty casts will overlap  
if you're new to this au, check out the series page for a document containing a guide to the au or feel free to ask me questions! have fun!

You get the tip about a mage in the mirror world later than you would’ve liked.

You planned the trip to the mirror world a few weeks ago, hoping to pick up some materials for a sculpture, and only at the portal does someone mention the mage. Signs of one, at least -- large periodic magic fluctuations where there shouldn’t be any, hopping from place to place followed by rumors of a larger-than-life magic show by someone new to the scene. The cloud elf doesn’t even mean to tip you off, as far as you can tell; she mentions it casually while looking at her nails and waiting for someone to come back through the portal, with a “thought you should know,” thrown on as an _afterthought_.

“Thanks for the heads up,” you say almost sarcastically.

“Mhm.”

An unplanned detour isn’t unusual on these trips, but you still find yourself sighing. You have no idea where this mage is, sure, but that’s never stopped you. You attract oncoming disasters as well now as in the memories that hang in the back of your mind from a lifetime ago. Stopping them has always been your job.

Everything on the other side of the portal seems quiet. The same town as usual, clothed in a summer evening. Yet… you take a deep breath; the world seems to be holding its own. Nothing to do but wait for the trouble to come to you. You still have errands to run. No use putting those on hold while you’re waiting for the world to catch up.

Surprisingly, the world lets you get through your errands.

And then the weight of the world is on your neck for just a moment, the kind of weight that comes up from your quietest memories. The voice that’s not a voice tells you where to go. It’s on your way home.

The hotel is one you’ve visited before, never for very long. There are signs pointing toward a ballroom with a gathering mingling inside. The signs are for a magician, one “The Lady Flame.”

The Lady Flame is among the crowd when you go inside. She’s bright in more ways than one; her hair catches your attention immediately, a gradient glowing like fire in the low lights that glint off the metal pins covering her denim vest, and she is smiling and laughing with the people around her. The voice that’s not a voice points her out.

She sees you. The Lady Flame comes up to you and sticks out a hand, saying, “Welcome to the show!”

You shake her hand and you can’t help but smile back at her. She’s bouncing on her feet, full of energy, and you can almost ignore the nagging feeling in the back of your mind that things are about to go horribly wrong for her.

“I’m Aubrey Little,” she continues. “The Lady Flame.”

“Mama.” _ Just Mama?_ you can hear, questioned across countless introductions.

Aubrey doesn’t ask the question, because someone calls her name backstage and she waves to everyone as she runs over to answer and the feeling of dread takes over.

You hate waiting. But there’s nothing else to do.

The show is wonderful. You watch from against the wall as Aubrey does magic tricks, calls upon the slowly growing audience, is lit up by the fake wall’s slow slide away to accompany new watchers, brings the largest white rabbit you’ve ever seen on stage and keeps him close by even when his role is done. Magic show stuff. Trick magic, the kind that didn’t require any sort of energy input. Not something you should be --

Even you aren’t prepared when the bang goes off.

You stumble away, trying to rub the light out of your eyes. There are footsteps all around you, panicking voices calling out nonsense in a dash a_way_. There’s no real direction they’re going, they’re just running from the flames starting to lick at the curtains and at the edges of the stage. And there's a scream, something more akin to a shriek, behind you by the stage. The scream of someone wounded.

Your eyes clear and it's The Lady Flame. She's crumbled on the stage, gripping one hand. Her hand is smoking and she looks like she's crying and you're up by her side in a few strides, taking her by the shoulders and trying to get her to look at you. She shakes her head, stutters something about the pain, about her rabbit. She's hurt but won't leave without him. Okay, you can deal with that, even if he's a bit big. You scoop up the rabbit in one hand and take her uninjured one with the other. She looks at you through her tears.

You tell Aubrey Little you don't want her to die. And that she won't, if she comes with you.

She doesn't resist your tug to her feet, eyes trained on the rabbit in your arms, and together you rush into the crowd out of the burning building. Her hand is hot and she starts coughing, choking up embers. You can hear her panic, hear the tears caught in the back of her throat and the wheeze of someone burning. The voice that's not a voice lends you ancient youthful legs. The portal isn't far. Safety isn't far. The magic won't have time to eat her from the inside out (any more than it already has). The crackle of the flames plays you out.

You get her through the portal as her footsteps start lagging behind yours and she takes a shuddering breath of air that sounds like she'd been drowning before this. Maybe she has been, you wonder. How long has she had magic? You pause, let her breathe, let her take the next few steps now that she's in little danger of being consumed without letting go of her hand.

“You. Saved me,” Aubrey says. Her hand twitches in yours.

“Not just yet. You still need medical attention.”

Aubrey looks at her hand, no longer smoking but still raw, covered with burns down to the wrist, and she seems to have forgotten it was hurt at all. She takes another big, deep breath, and when you slow to a stop there are tears running down her face but no sobs rocking her shoulders. She must be in shock, you muse. “Hey,” you say in the hopes of getting her attention. “It’s gonna be fine.”

She nods, slowly, her eyes not on you but on the rabbit in your arms. You let go of her hand and offer him, and he is remarkably calm as she cradles him against her chest, avoiding touching anything with her wounded hand. “Okay,” Aubrey breathes. “Okay, I’ll be okay.”

The walk back to the lodge is slow. You're guiding her, but you let Aubrey decide the pace, and she's tired. You don't press for questions. She doesn't ask any of you. She hugs her rabbit a little closer.

Barclay greets you at the door, and you watch the “where have you been?!” start and then fail when he sees Aubrey stumbling along next to you. “Can you get me the burn kit?” you ask.

Aubrey waves, wincing through a smile. Barclay’s eyebrows shoot up, and he says, “I’ll be right back.”

He runs back into the lodge, leaving the door open behind him; you take the hint and guide Aubrey inside to one of the circles of chairs. She sits, setting her rabbit in her lap and petting him, her burnt hand resting the arm of the chair. You sit next to her, waiting to see if she’ll speak on her own.

“I… Why did it explode like that?” Aubrey asks, finally, in a whisper.

Of course, she starts with the one question you can’t answer. You don’t get involved with magic directly, always preferring the physical weapon to the magical. “Could be a number of things,” you reply. “How long have you been using real magic?”

Aubrey looks up at you, her eyes going wide. “That was real magic?” She doesn’t sound surprised so much as hopeful.

“That big bang was, at least.”

“I knew it!” Aubrey’s eyes are wide and she is smiling, really smiling, like she was during the show. “I knew something was happening.”

“Did you?” you ask; Barclay isn’t back yet, and you know how well a distraction can work against pain. “This happened before?”

"Kind… of," Aubrey says. She looks at her hand, watching her fingers twitch. Her smile is fading. "Never this bad."

"Well, magic won't hurt you anymore, alright?"

Aubrey doesn't look convinced, but she's not crying anymore, so that's a step up. "I'll tell you what," you say, waving a hand. "Once we get you patched up and settled in, I'll get your stuff from that hotel."

"Even Dr. Harris Bonkers' stuff?" she asks. You almost ask what that means, but you notice her petting the rabbit with a care that seems almost too delicate for such a big animal and draw your own conclusions.

"Even his stuff," you promise.

Barclay interrupts whatever was on her lips by coming over, burn kit in hand. "It was buried in the closet," he explains.

"Thank you, Barclay," you say, taking the kit and motioning for Aubrey to give you her burnt hand. She does as you scan the room and find the person you're looking for. "Dani, why don't you get a room set up for Aubrey here?"

Aubrey's eyes, originally on where you're patching up her wound without looking, drift across the room to follow your gaze. You pretend not to notice her movement as Dani looks up from her sketchbook and pulls out an earbud. You wait, watch. Dani looks back. "Sorry Mama, I didn't hear you," she admits.

"That's alright," you assure her, and you steady the shaking in Aubrey's burnt hand. "We just need a room for Aubrey."

Dani sets her stuff aside and waves to Aubrey as she passes by the chairs you’re sitting on. Aubrey waves her uninjured hand and you swear you see light darting between her fingers but decide not to comment. “Who’s that?” Aubrey asks, and it’s soft, and you stop yourself from smiling too much.

“That’s Dani. She’s one of the folks who live around here, likes to help out, runs our little garden.”

“Oh.”

“You should ask her to give you the tour,” you suggest, putting the finishing touches on her bandages. “Since I’ll be out getting your stuff from the hotel.”

“Do you think she’ll like Dr. Harris Bonkers?”

“I’m sure she will.”

Aubrey scratches behind Dr. Harris Bonkers' ears and watches you work in silence. You finish wrapping her hand, and start standing while giving her care instructions when she interrupts.

“Mama,” she asks, “what happened to me?”

“You did magic,” you respond, even with your suspicion that that’s not the right answer.

“Well, I know that,” Aubrey says. “But why now? When did I get real magic?”

You don’t have an answer, so you stand in front of her, waiting. And then you do your best to hug her with a rabbit in her lap and an injured hand, feel her melt into the touch, and say, “I don’t know, Aubrey. Why don’t we figure that out when I get back?”

She nods against your shoulder. You pat her back and pull away, heading out the door with a call to Barclay about where you’re going. Everything is quiet.

**Author's Note:**

> welcome, dear reader, to the end of this fic and the beginning of me actually publishing this universe! i have a few other little one-shots like this either in progress or ready to be uploaded, and i'll be putting them up either between other projects or whenever i finish them  
i actually have another one almost done that's about aubrey adjusting to the lodge, but i'm not sure yet whether that'll be a second chapter here or its own thing, but keep an eye on the series and you should know soon!  
i hope you enjoyed this one, either way! and if you'd like to chat, ask me questions, whatever, check out my tumblr, [thegempage](https://thegempage.tumblr.com/), or my twitter, [@achillopal](https://twitter.com/achillopal)!! i love hearing from my readers and occasionally post one-shots or fun details that don't make it onto ao3 : 3  
have a good morning/day/evening/night!!


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